Clobberin Time: Steve Skroce Takes Thing on an Action-Packed Team-Up Adventure (Exclusive)

By Timothy Adams

The Thing is a member of the Fantastic Four, Marvel's First Family, and one of the pillars of the company. He's known for his popular catchphrase "It's Clobberin Time!" and standing toe-to-toe with some of the toughest and strongest characters in the Marvel Universe. ComicBook.com can exclusively announce that in June, Ben Grimm will begin one of his wildest adventures next in Clobberin Time, a new five-issue limited series written and drawn by Steve Skroce. Each issue will be a heavy action, blockbuster adventure pairing The Thing with a different Marvel hero.

The first hero joining Thing in Clobberin Time is Hulk, who he's had some classic battles with in the past. Instead of fighting each other, Thing and Hulk will team up. ComicBook.com spoke to Skroce via email to find out who else will be fighting alongside Thing, the threats they'll face, and much more.

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(Photo: Marvel Comics)

Genesis of Clobberin' Time

ComicBook.com: First, I have to admit Clobberin Time is an excellent title for a series. How did the idea come about to team Thing up with a different Marvel hero in each issue?

Steve Skroce: Legendary editor Tom Breevort reached out to me with the idea of doing a modern version of a Marvel comic that the company hadn't done in a while, like the old Two-in One books. High adventure, but contemporary and self-contained.

You can't think about the Thing without Jack Kirby, and John Byrne was the guy doing the Fantastic Four when I was a kid along with writing Ben's first solo series, and I tried to take the epic, anything can happen feelings that both those eras gave me and put them into CLOBBERIN TIME.

Clobberin Time Guest-Stars

What kind of threats will Thing and his partners be facing?

Ben and the Hulk, Logan, Doctor Strange, Doctor Doom, and the Silver Surfer will face hordes of prototype DEVIANT monsters, robots, undulating, plasma spewing, flesh lummoxes, wizards, and Tuvah Tu, the banished Watcher and Uatu's estranged brother. Ben will also have to experience having his rocky hide pulled right off his soft under flesh.

We're introducing a new villain called OGDU FRAIZE: the PSYCHOPOMP. He's a human from an unseen distant future of the Marvel Universe Earth. The heroes and villains are long gone, humanity lives in massive, domed cities, the lucky ones anyway, others survive in the futuristic wasteland. Savage gangs and blood cults rule and many worship the old superheroes like ancient gods.

Ogdu was raised by and survived such a cult, he'll tell you he's "the most intelligent man to ever exist" and he has an ax to grind with the heroes who've left behind his brutal world of haves and have nots.

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(Photo: Marvel Comics)

Surprising Pairings

The Thing works so well when he's bouncing off another character, like Johnny Storm on the Fantastic Four. Did any of your pairings surprise you with how their dynamics played out in your scripts and pages?

This is Marvel's contemporary Ben Grimm, "THIS MAN...THIS MONSTER" was a while ago now, he's married, rich, and well known, becoming the Thing isn't the burden it once was, he's a superhero, philanthropist, cosmic explorer. He has a history with all the greats, and it's fun to reference some big moments from the past. He's totally over Logan slicing off his face that time by the way... mostly.

All-Out Action

We're promised lots of action in Clobberin Time, but just how much should fans expect in each issue?

I have tried my hardest to put these characters through the most savage, sickening, inhumane, and heinous meat grinder battles I could create. Stuff happens in this book that just hasn't happened in any other Marvel comic.

This is the event that's in between all the others, cut off from all help, Ben and co' will be two against multitudes with all of creation hanging in the balance.

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